The Movie Director Who Couldn't Get Any Movies Made

Attend the tale of a movie director who has lost two big pictures in a row. It's a sad one. Also today: more pilot casting news of course, AMC teases their latest show, The Event crashes and burns, and a little Greek send-off.

Man, Guillermo del Toro just can't get it together. Last month the director was given a fairly unfortunate profile in The New Yorker that basically painted him as a sad nerd who is constantly undone by his own childish ambition. It spoke a little bit about his abrupt departure from the helm of The Hobbit and chronicled his development of a new movie, an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. This was to be a huge project involving lots of creature design — del Toro's true passion — and, y'know, money. So he pitches it and it goes well and development continues and the article ends, but not without the vague sense that this thing was never actually gonna happen. And, indeed, today it looks like it isn't. It appears that del Toro is pulling out of negotiations with Universal, over budget concerns and an unwillingness to soften the violence and gore to assure a PG-13 rating rather than an R. So that's it for Mountains for now. Another dream project scuttled. Del Toro might jump to another monster movie, a safely PG-13 one called Pacific Rim, but that's not set in stone. So for now he'll keep dreaming and dreaming (and announcing projects that are in no way sure things) and, it sadly seems, spinning his wheels. [THR]

This isn't really here nor there, and is really not a trade item, but whatever. Last night ABC Family's lovely little show Greek — a smart, tart confection of a series — came to an end, and it was happy/sad. It was a good little show that bounced along merrily for a while and is now gone. So. Just wanted to take a moment to say goodbye to it. Here's an interview with the show's creator about the finale. [EW]

Pilotz! Actorz! Pilotz and Actorz coming together! Madchen Amick, who was on Twin Peaks but is of course best known as the old lady that slept with Nate on Gossip's Girls, has been cast in S.I.L.A., a Pixar pilot about a female robotic grain silo looking for love. Kelli Garner, from My Generation among other disasters, has been cast in Pan Am, an existential ABC drama pilot about Descartes and Pan the shepherd god having a long conversation. And this gentleman, actor Brian Hallisay, who was in a movie called Bottoms Up that is sadly not what we'd hoped it was about, has been cast in Awakening, about two girls coming of age and learning life lessons during a zombie apocalypse. (That one's real!) [Deadline]

Michael Chabon and his terrible, evil, despicable child-hating wife Ayelet Waldman have successfully pitched a project called Hobgoblin to HBO. It's about a merry band of magicians and tricksters who use their skills to fight Nazis in World War II. Yeah, really! I think that sounds kind of great. Both Chabon and Waldman are good writers and HBO tends to do good things so I am feeling positive about this. I know that my opinion means so much to you, so I just thought I'd let you know. [THR]

Another thing that looks good! AMC's new show The Killing. The network has released a four-minute trailer and it is intriguing. The two most exciting things about the series are actors Michelle Forbes and Mireille Enos, who are wonderful and should be in many more things for the rest of their lives. Agreed? Agreed. Though, one thing I wish they'd leave out of the promo? "From the producer of Cold Case." I mean, that's not really a credential to swing on, is it? It's like saying "From the geniuses who brought you Crossing Jordan..." "From the television experts behind Close to Home..." "From the visionary minds that crafted Rizzoli & Isles..." It just doesn't really snap. [Deadline]

Eyyyyuh-oh. NBC's The Event returned to the airwaves last night after a four month hiatus, and it was... uneventful. Well, it was eventful, but that event was a catastrophe. The show was down 26% since the last episode, which means it was not sorely missed. But! But! But what about the aliens who live in Laura Innes' cane or whatever that show is about? It's about airplane aliens, right? Airplane aliens that get sucked into another dimension by Laura Innes' magic cane and then Blair Underwood comes in and is like "I'm the President" and then Jason Ritter is all "I resemble a rat" and then the girl from Disturbia who is so bad in the acting department falls down and says "Oops, I fell down" and then the aliens come back from the dimension and kill everyone. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what this show is about. They should have called it Laura Innes' Cane. Everyone loved that cane on ER! Hm, what's that? She doesn't have a cane on this one? Well then what the hell is the point? [THR]